National Environment Protection (Air Toxics) Measure

On 13 December 2013, COAG replaced its 22 Standing Councils, Select Councils and governance fora with a set of eight Councils and the decision saw the revocation of the Standing Council on Environment and Water. Work is currently underway to resolve how its existing work would be handled in the future. In the interim, this website is currently maintained for historical purposes and is scheduled for archiving.

A new website for the National Environment Protection Council is currently under development.

Please contact the relevant jurisdictional agency regarding detailed implementation information for this NEPM. Decisions about the way in which NEPMs are implemented are made by each jurisdiction individually.

Air Toxics NEPM Goal

To improve the information base regarding ambient air toxics with the Australian environment in order to facilitate the development of standards.

Desired Environmental Outcomes

To facilitate management of air toxics in ambient air that will allow for the equivalent protection of human health and well being by:

Providing for the generation of comparable, reliable information on the levels of toxic air pollutants at sites where significant elevated concentration of one or more of these air toxics are likely to occur (Stage 1 sites) and where the potential for significant population exposure to air toxics exists (Stage 2 sites).

Establishing a consistent approach to the identification of such sites for use by jurisdictions.

Establishing a consistent frame of reference (‘monitoring investigation levels’-MILs) for use by jurisdictions in assessing the likely significance of levels of air toxics measured at Stage 2 sites.

Adopting a nationally consistent approach to monitoring air toxics at a range of locations (eg: near major industrial sites, major roads, areas affected by wood smoke).